Die Kinder im Keller (The Children in the Cellar)
by Dorminchu
Summary: More or less an extended cut of Im Vorbeigehen, ein Zwischenspiel, because I couldn't leave well enough alone.
1. Die Nacht ist noch jung

**Die Kinder im Keller (The Children in the Cellar)**

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><p><em>AN: Merry Christmas, guys! (Yeah, I know I'm a few days late_—_call it a belated Christmas.) New story for you all! It also happens to feature this lovely first chapter that pushed the rating up to mature. __...Man, I can't believe I wrote this. XD_

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><p>"...Just give me a warning next time."<p>

At a loss for what to say, he buried his face in her neck and resumed. He felt her hands file through his hair, then drift along his back before settling at his shoulders.

He rose, feeling dazed and far too enthused. Annie glanced up at him curiously.

"What?" She asked. Eren shook his head. He wasn't sure himself. She hummed, wriggled her hips against his and he bit back a gasp. "Come here, then."

The pace he established was apparently too slow for her liking, for it had not been long when she gripped his shoulders, tightened her legs around his waist and drew him to her.

"Help me up?"

Eren sat up gingerly. Their position was awkward, to say the least. She was still straddling him, and the limited size of the cot left few options to them in means of freedom to move about. Annie extricated herself partially from his arms, stating: "We should turn around."

They shifted about, clumsy with excitement. She pushed him back and his head hit the wall, not as roughly as hers had, but even so, there was a noticeable stab of pain. He winced.

"Shit." She muttered flatly. While he recuperated, she situated herself atop him with a pleasurable hiss.

He had only a second to witness the glint in her eyes and then it began again, quicker and more feverish than before. He leant up on hands and elbows, grasped her waist and brought his hips up to meet her. It was a sudden sort of movement, uncoordinated, but she laced her fingers into his hair and eased herself against him.

Eren was aware of many different things around them in the cellar; intangible sounds that might've been voices, distorted by the stone walls around them, the damp heat of their skin and the ache in his scalp from where her grip had since been relinquished in favor of holding his shoulders. He drew her to him, kissed her throat, her shoulder. She moaned a bit, and he leant up with the intention to kiss her again when she pulled away to rest her forehead against his, panting.

"They've probably been searching all over the castle," Annie said huskily, a note of amusement entering her voice, "wondering where you could've gone."

Eren wanted to point out that the collection of tunnels between their underground cells were of reasonable scale and that they would have to search for a little while at the very least, but wasn't of the mind to respond in such a manner.

"You think so?" He muttered.

Annie smirked. "It was your idea to come here, wasn't it?" This statement was punctuated with a slow grind of her hips and a brief kiss on his mouth to stifle the noise she elicited. "But I don't think we have much time left." She added quietly.

He got the idea, and continued with a squeeze of her hips.

She grunted softly, imploringly, hands curling against his stomach, breath irresolute. As she loomed over him, accentuated in the half-light from the candle, she was like some phantom creature; nearly insubstantial, but simultaneously heavy and real. Eren ran his fingers up her waist, her sides, drawing loose circles on her chest. He wasn't really keeping up with her anymore (just a languid roll of his hips every couple seconds to incite her) but she didn't seem to care. She didn't say anything, at least.

Abruptly, she slid from him, flushed and panting.

"Make it quick," She muttered, and he could tell by the strained quality in her voice that she was waiting for him.

Shortly after this, he came into the sheet with minimal effort on his part.

He heard Annie curse desperately and turned.

It was a mystery how she managed to maintain her usual composure despite the fire in her eyes and the blush painting her face, but her voice only hinted at a loss of that control. For reasons he was too involved to identify, he found this to be extremely arousing.

"So," she panted, "how about it?"

He was already ahead of her. Annie gripped his wrist with trembling hands and he slid a couple fingers back into her. "Don't stop this time," she whispered. "I swear I'll kill you."

Eren laughed hoarsely. "I wasn't going to."

"Good." Her voice strained as she rolled her hips up to meet him. She felt his other hand splay upon her thigh. He circled the pad of his thumb around the more sensitive flesh before he dipped back into her, and now a gasp worked its way up from her throat.

"Like that?" Annie nodded absently. The absolute concentration in his expression was fascinating. She traced dry lips with the tip of her tongue, wary of how he shivered and wondering, vaguely, if she should have tried that earlier.

He pressed on, and she could only sigh her approval; words were heavy on her tongue at the moment, so she squirmed, panting feverishly for a while before she worked up the resolve to mumble something insightful along the lines of: "Close," and that seemed to do the trick. He leant down and she met him halfway, kissing the corner of his mouth.

Too soon, his fingers stuttered to a halt, then departed. She could not suppress her groan of desperation, but then he was back, and though it wasn't much of an improvement over the steady, albeit awkward pace he'd kept before, he was touching her again, and that was all that mattered.

A dazed sort of fascination illuminated his features; he was almost as breathless as she, still flushed, attention occasionally flitting between her shivering visage and his hand.

He was enjoying this far too much. Annie pushed herself up unsteadily, lips parted to inform him of this fact when he kissed her again, and he kept at it until they established a sort of pace that made the world grow hot and tremulous again.

She felt his rapt attention upon her like a physical presence and couldn't bring herself meet his gaze, because it was too much to look at him in her state of total disarray, too much amidst the heated churning in her belly and shameless _want_ of all that he was and was not. Instead, she slid back against the wall, entwined her fingers in his slickened ones and guided him accordingly.

He responded in kind. And oh, she was close, now. He must've anticipated the degree of her condition, because he brushed a few sweat-streaked bangs that clung to her forehead aside with his thumb and kissed her feverishly.

She inhaled sharply against his lips—more of a low, startled cry—and arched back against the wall in near silence, save for her raspy gasps as release wracked her frame, grinding into his hand with equal fervor and recklessness. She went on for a bit before her body slowed, gradually. Then it relented, and she was left in the darkness of the room until Eren sat next to her.

"Annie?" She trained her eyes on him. "I think the others are still asleep." He said quietly. "I guess we were lucky."

She shrugged. "Maybe they just wanted to listen." He grinned, pulled her into a hug.

"Maybe."

And that was when the door opened.

Captain Levi glanced nonchalantly across the room, eyes resting a millisecond longer upon the spot where they were. Then he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. The two stared in shock at the door, and then looked at each other.

"Well," Eren muttered, returning his attention to her, "you might've had a point."

Annie gave a small, derisive snort.

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><p><em>AN II: T__here's a reason for all of this tomfoolery, __believe it or not...__you might even hazard to call it a__ gamble. ;)_

_Stay tuned, and have a happy New Year!_


	2. aber am Morgen ist der Kicker

_A/N: Funnily enough, this rest of this tale is basically T-rated humor. The story can blame its first chapter for all the mature stuff._

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><p>It began as such:<p>

"I don't care how you do it, Levi." Erwin said, "But you will make this _stop_. Is that clear?"

Levi just smiled.

"Of course."

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><p>The problem with sleeping in an underground antechamber was that one was hard-pressed to discern the time of day.<p>

So when Eren woke to a sharp _skritch_ somewhere to his right, the first conscious thought that entered his mind was that the guards had come to rouse them. Shortly after this concept had formed within his brain, light flooded the room, casting a reddish glow. He blinked a few times, staring up at the ceiling while his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim illumination.

It was not sharp enough to discern clear details, instead offering outlines: the chair in the corner, the wall beside the cot, the sheets, thin and crumpled around his body. Despite the poor visibility, he found himself a little disorientated, having adapted to waking up in near-darkness every day. It was also fairly cold, now that he thought about it, though not unbearably so.

The events of the previous evening came back to him. It was a bit strange, recalling them like this, but not at all unpleasant. Just hazy.

And yet a sense of unease lingered. The guards had not come for them. Dieter or one of the others would have at least ushered them out with some kind of gruff recognition. Even if they didn't know about the tryst (the suggestion alone was ludicrous, of _course_ they knew), someone would have come for them by now.

So what were they waiting for? The two of them, obviously, but why?

The explanation continued to elude him. Defeated, he sat up.

A noticeable shift in weight caught his attention. Eren looked over, and to his surprise Annie was quite awake, perched on the side of the cot with her back to him, and, as far as he could tell, equally naked. He considered drawing her attention, but decided—at least for the moment—to wait it out.

As it turned out, he needn't have done so.

"You're awake," she noted.

Eren gave a start at the sound of her voice.

"Oh. Um, hey, Annie."

Half dressed and nonchalant, she leant across him to grab her shirt and slipped her arms into the sleeves without pause. Even in the low light, he could make out the little white scars defining her spine, branching out into a web of faded lines along her neck and face, shining against the pale complexion of her skin.

(He'd asked about them, once, although knowing full well what they represented. He'd wanted to hear it from her. _We all have them_, she had said, impassively. Privately, Eren wondered what else she concealed.)

She must have noticed the way he watched her. How he must look. He felt odd; despite his contemplation, he was tentative and curious and thoroughly enthralled. Annie did up her shirt with a faint twitch of her mouth. He caught it, though.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Eren collected himself. "No, it's just...you woke me."

Annie glanced over at him. "You sound surprised."

"I was expecting guards."

She did up the last few buttons on her trousers, and her expression was unreadable. "They won't come in without knocking first." Then she smiled. "It was nice of you to drop by last night."

Eren felt his face grow hot again, accompanied by a peculiar fluttering in his stomach.

"Your shirt is over there," she added, indicating the bundle of fabric on the floor.

"Er, thanks," he muttered. "For the shirt. And the other thing."

"You're welcome," she replied, and her voice was as close to warm as it ever was. "Just be glad one of us didn't transform."

He had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that, so he retrieved his shirt and said, "I didn't know they let you keep your own lantern."

She glanced over her shoulder at it. "They don't."

"Well, that's probably another good reason why they keep us in the basement," said Eren. "You're dangerous."

"_We_ are," she corrected him, "and I'd just like you to know that you look completely suspicious."

"You don't look much better," he countered, then grinned. "I think I like you more like this."

"You have no idea," Annie muttered, "how lucky you are that I'm in a good mood." But she looked moderately pleased with herself.

From that point, they dressed in silence.

When ready, Eren stood and walked over to the door, where further light filtered in from between the bars of the tiny window. For the second time, he wondered what the guards were waiting for. He brought his hand to the knob, but wavered.

Mentally, he shook himself. This was ridiculous.

As if on cue, Annie asked, "You going to open that door?"

Eren looked back at her, hand still on the doorknob. Annie caught his eye, smirked. He turned back to the door, twisting the knob partway while she moved quietly to his side.

"Hey," said Annie.

He lowered his gaze down to her, whereupon she leant up, slipped her arms loosely around his shoulders and kissed him briefly before drawing away.

"See you," she murmured.

Eren responded with a kind of half-grin, and opened the door.

Captain Levi was waiting for them outside, seated in a chair, legs crossed, with a book in his hands. He glanced up, unperturbed as the door opened.

"Commander Hange wants to see you. Both of you. I also feel it necessary to mention that she was quite excited at the prospect of seeing you as soon as possible." When the two said nothing but continued to stare blankly at him, he let out a tired sigh. "She'll be down in the infirmary. Do yourselves a favor and don't keep her waiting any longer than you already have."

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><p>So it was that, ten minutes later, Hange sat the two down, already prepared for their arrival with an ample supply of notes and a quill. This thought alone was nothing short of terrifying. They sat there while she rummaged within the various cabinets, all the while talking gaily about how brilliant of an opportunity this was, until she found a spare inkwell. Her very manner was abundant with thinly-veiled glee as she returned to her chair, eyeing them over the rim of her glasses.<p>

Noting their incapacity to look in the direction of her or each other, she asked, "Is there anything you two would like to ask me?"

Eren stared fixedly at a spot on the farthest wall that was partly to the left of her head. "Shouldn't we, you know, take a shower or...?"

Annie uttered something indistinct under her breath.

Hange, conversely, just brushed the suggestion away with a cheery wave of her hand. "I understand what you're getting at, and rest assured, it's quite all right with me! Actually, I'd much prefer it if you didn't go ahead and shower just yet. Scientific purposes, you know?" She beamed enthusiastically, apparently oblivious to the supreme discomfiture emanating from both teens. When nobody said anything, she clapped her hands together. "Right! Let's get to it, then!"

Twenty minutes later, the explanation was (mercifully) over. Hange listened all the while with rapt attention, scribbling furiously despite his frequent hesitation. When he faltered, she paused, glanced up.

"That's all?" she asked.

Eren just sort of nodded weakly. Annie continued to study the wooden grains in the table.

Hange readjusted her glasses and straightened up, hands folded.

"Now, given the information you've presented me with, I'm going to assume you both have a proper understanding of the whole reproductive aspect of this. Which is good. Less awkward conversations for everyone." She glanced back down at her notes, frowning slightly. "Well, sort of. It's a real shame they won't let me run more tests to determine whether or not you two actually could produce offspring." Neither Eren nor Annie could remember a time in their lives where they had felt this level of simultaneous horror and embarrassment. Hange, meanwhile, sighed wistfully, and shook her head. "Ah, well. Perhaps one day they'll see the genius in my hypothesis. But that's for another day."

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><p><em>AN II: And the plot was a science experiment. Literally. :D Hange was easily my favorite character in this. But Levi was pretty great, too. ...You know what, I can't decide who was greater. It's a tie._

_Read and review?_


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